Muslim scholar found guilty of raping boy, jailed 45 years

Neezam Ali, the Muslim scholar charged with raping nine boys who took Quran and Arabic lessons from him, was this afternoon jailed 45 years of the rape of one the boys.

He was today convicted by a 12-person jury at the High Court in Georgetown of sexually penetrating a 9-year-old boy. Ali, who in his defence had said that he could not commit such an act because he has erectile dysfunction, was sentenced to 45 years in jail by Justice Navindra Singh.

Before passing sentence, Justice Singh told Ali that he took advantage of underprivileged boys and that the sexual abuse occurred within the walls of a Masjid.

According to reports, Ali sexually assaulted the 9-year-old, who was among eight other boys, who usually would go to take Quran and Arabic lessons from him at a Masjid on the East Coast of Demerara.

All the underage boys allege that Ali had anal intercourse with them and committed the crimes between December 2011 and January 2012.

In 2013, Ali, also known as ‘Mufti’, an Imam, whose last known address is said to beat South, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, was committed to stand trial at the High Court for the offence after the conclusion of a preliminary inquiry before Magistrate Alex Moore who ruled that there was sufficient evidence against him to be tried for the offences.

As it is, Ali is still to be tried for eight more counts of child rape at the next session of the Demerara Assizes which commences on the second Tuesday of next month.

Ali, a now convicted rapist, was out on $1.3M bail pending trial in relation to all nine counts. Ali was represented by attorneys-at-law Stanley Moore and Latchmie Rahamat, while the case for the State was presented by Prosecutors Tuanna Hardy, Abigail Gibbs and Teriq Mohamed.